Tuesday, December 08, 2009

When one surfs the internet you sometimes stumble across blogs, and information that are really eye-openers.

In this instance I started to read a blog by one Alex Engwete. In his own words “This is a companion blog in English of my blog in French also called “Alex Engwete”. This is foremost an exercise in “congology,” that is, a semiotic vigilance on cultural and political practices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). No kidding. In a country that witnessed the semiotic swindle called Authenticity (Mobutu), “residents of the republic” (Alain Bashung) need to be in a state of heightened vigilance. For the con continues and has even taken more ominous forms. ……..)

This gives a glimpse in the mind of an intelligent African man, and what he thinks about Africa, etc.

His thoughts on Jacob Zuma are a revelation.

I am posting it below.

About a year ago, I told a friend that Jacob Zuma would turn South Africa into Zimbabwe. I said that not because of Zuma’s lack of governance skills but because he'd just sued South African Jewish caricaturist Jonathan Shapiro aka Zapiro for portraying him “unbuckling his belt as he prepares to rape the figurative Lady Justice.” The showerhead atop the head of Zuma refers to what transpired at his trial for allegedly raping an HIV-positive woman. He claimed it was consensual sex (the court believed him) and though he didn’t wear a condom during intercourse, he forcefully claimed to have taken a shower afterwards!

It seems I was right after all—the man is slowly transmogrifying into a Mugabe. Zuma is mulling a land reform similar to the one that ruined Zimbabwe. And this past week Zuma signed on a deal with President Denis Sassou-Nguessou of Congo-Brazzaville to have 1700 white South African farmers resettle in the Congo though his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, “was opposed to the migration of white farmers and snubbed attempts by the government in Brazzaville to attract them.” White South African farmers are already leaving the country in droves and those who choose to stay behind are arming themselves to the teeth — not for resisting land reform but to defend themselves as “thousands of white landowners have been killed by Zimbabwe-style marauders” since the end of apartheid.

Congo-Brazzaville is on the right bank of the Congo River and I hope the produces of these hardworking Afrikaner farmers would also flood the markets in Kinshasa.

FYI: The photo is by Caroline Suzman. She prefers that her fotos from particularly that farmers Killing Fields series which she spent months working on, are not published out of context, and only with her permission; because they can so easily be misinterpreted.

I am sorry.. did not know you were sleeping. My apologies. I did not mean you need to remove it. Just for Ms. Suzman's concerns about the surrounding issues, include the context. Generally when I use one of her photos, then I include it with the following little blurb.